General FreeSpace > FreeSpace Discussion
How should the GTVA proceed with cruisers post-Capella?
Mongoose:
Yeah, in the Capella era protecting most cruisers was much too difficult for any benefits they supposedly gave. The Aeolus could (mostly) hold its own, and the Leviathan had enough armor tank some hits and had good AAA coverage, but that was about it. Unless the GTVA can start up Aeolus production again, I don't think there's much of a practical future for cruisers.
EatThePath:
If we're building ships to fight Sathanas threats, I've got one grim justification for cruisers in my head.
In a white room, just tabled stats, fleet vs fleet fight, if we assume a Sathanas has no delay from switching targets but can't switch a beam's target mid-shot, then it should a collosus in 40 seconds, or kill two destroyers every 10 seconds,or kill 4 of anything smaller every 10 seconds.
We can't really know how the costs and manufacturing capability break out, but if going just by a very crude estimate of volume then a destroyer is 'worth' around 25 corvettes, or 470-ish cruisers. It seems unlikely that it's a simple switch between "build 1 destroyer" and "build 500 cruisers", but dozens certainly seems plausible to me.
So, if you are planning for the possibility of having to fight a fully-fanged sathanas, cruisers start getting attractive because it can only kill them so fast, and when it does you lose a lot less than you would with a larger ship. It requires you to abandon the idea of your crews not being expendable, and there's a lot of other factors that muddy the waters, but I do think it's a plausible thread to pull on.
I do think there's also out-of-battle utility factors to consider. A cruiser can loiter, it can show presence and provide some measure of security. Yeah, fighters can do that some, but there's got to be a limit. The fighters have to go home after a few hours, the cruiser doesn't. And yeah, corvettes, but cruisers existing is easily justified by simply saying they can't afford as many corvettes as they'd like, and need cruisers to fill the gap. Sure, it'd be nice to just have bigger, better ships everywhere, but sometimes you just have to settle.
They can be needed for the fleet's overall operation, and still go up in smoke the minute a bomber wing or shivan cruiser notices them, that's not exactly a contradiction. At least, not the kind of contradiction that would stop a military for doing something.
Shivan Hunter:
For specifically countering Saths, I think the calculus turns out more in favor of bombers than anything else. Fast, agile bombers armed with heavy anti-subsystem bombs specifically tailored to Sath beams in particular and possibly Shivan beam tech in general. Bearbaiting was after all a resounding success by any measure: One bomber wing launched in desperation managed to completely defang the Shivans' biggest threat!
I like the idea of cruisers' disposability vs Shivans being factored into their construction. (Ties in well with my Mjolnir plans! ;)) But I also like the idea of cruisers just not being such absolute ass, the way they're depicted in FS2. BP's cruisers seem much more believable, being a serious threat to enemy fighters, and needing a coordinated effort to take down - contrast with the Fenris or maybe even the Aeolus in retail FS2, which could lose a fight to a single sufficiently determined Herc 2.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is subspace maneuverability: small ships (fighters especially) are generally considered to have shorter cycle time on their jump drives (I don't know how canon this is, but it's definitely a factor in many campaigns - see all the times you have to guard a larger ship while its jump drives "recharge"). It's entirely up to campaign authors what to do with the worldbuilding here, but the "Lilith-Aeolus" can likely move around easier and reach its destination faster than the "Lilith-Deimos", which makes it better specifically at executing Lilith ambush tactics.
Trivial Psychic:
It would be useful if a group of AWACS could effectively jam Shivan targeting sensors. Just create a bunch of AWACS cruisers with enough anti-fighter coverage to protect themselves from swarm attacks by fighters, and have them run interference for the big-gun warships to engage the Sath from distance with their own beams.
Colonol Dekker:
--- Quote from: Shivan Hunter on June 22, 2024, 03:29:04 pm ---
--- Quote from: Colonol Dekker on June 22, 2024, 11:05:32 am ---The GTSXMC (galactic terran super experimental mega cruiser) Aeolus Mk4 has got everything you need.
#channelling my 1999 inner child.
--- End quote ---
This. And it has under 50 polygons, has 1000000 HP, and every turret is a BFRed :P
--- End quote ---
:welcomegreen:
Yes my guy. The Volition watch archives rejoice.
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